Castleconnor, who had a bye in the first round of the Connacht
Gold Intermediate championship on its first weekend got their campaign off to a
winning start when they overcame the tenacious challenge of St Johns at the
Sligo GAA Centre of Excellence at Scarden last Sunday.
Despite generally good playing conditions, it was a tightly fought
match with scores at a premium, particularly in the first half.
Castleconnor opened the scoring with an Odhran Flynn point
in the fourth minute but it was ten minutes before they added a second from captain
Sean Carrabine and over ten minutes again before Carrabine added his side’s third
from a free to make it 3 points to no score with just over five minutes to half
time.
To make matters worse for St Johns they also lost defender
Mark Connolly McGowan to a second yellow card. That loss however seemed to stir
the Carraroe side and they finally got on the score sheet a minute later when the
evergreen Ian Rossiter pointed from a free.
A second followed from the same player but Carrabine had the last word
on the first half with a goal to send his side into the break four points
ahead, 1-3 to 0-2.
If St Johns were slow to start the first half, then they hit
the second half in exactly the opposite fashion adding 1.3 without reply in the
first four minutes of the second half, Rossiter finishing the goal, to take a
two point lead.
It took Castleconnor 12 minutes to find their range when
Luke Flynn pointed but that was followed by four further points from an Oisin
Flynn 45, centre back Eoin Kent, Luke Flynn again and Stephen Rogan to turn the
tie back in Castleconnor’s favour, with a three-point lead – 1.8. to 1.5 as the
game entered its last ten minutes.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, St John’s weren’t giving
up and points from David Burke from play and Rossiter from a 45 brought the margin
back to one with five minutes to play.
The man advantage was beginning to tell in the last five
minutes though as first Paul Flynn and then corner back Ronan Wilson and sub
Colm Ruttledge added points to give the west Sligo side a four point margin
1-11 to 1-7 at the end.
Scorers
Castleconnor
S Carrabine 1-2 (1f), Odhran Flynn 0-1 Oisin Flynn 0-2 (1
’45) Ruttledge, Wilson, Luke Flynn, Paul Flynn, E Kent and S Rogan 0-1 each
St Johns
I Rossiter (1-4, 3f, 1‘45) D Burke 0-1 C Greene 0-1, J Burns
0-1.